The Emptiness: A Story Told By The Artist
by A. Disturbance
Summary: This is basically Alesana's The Emptiness story. It's based on the Track by Track storyline of the album. For those who get confused with the ending **SPOILER ALERT** it is based on Annabel's point of view. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

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**_Prologue: I Handed You A Knife And My Heart_**

**I am here to tell you a story. A story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night. And though I will do my best, there are no words to describe the stark and utter horror of the causes that succumbed me into insanity. I tell you this from death. Now let the story begin.**

**_Chapter 1: Empty Eyes Accuse A Face So Evil_**

**I was just a local sketch artist by the name of Shawn before the horrible change of events happened. It was dawn in the small town of Slough in England during the year 1898. I was lying in bed next to my only love of seven years Annabel. As soon as I saw the first rays of sunlight pour through the window I decided to roll over and wake Annabel with a kiss. But when I set my lips on hers, they were terribly cold. I looked at Annabel, and all I saw was a lifeless body that had once been so beautiful. My one and only love has been murdered. I wondered and panicked about who would have done this to her. But I couldn't think of anyone. There was no one, but me. I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it. I would never hurt Annabel for anything much less murder her. What would provoke me to do this? I just begged that this whole thing was a horrible nightmare. It just had to be. **

**It just had to.**

_Chapter 2: Two Sweaty Hands Will Fail To Lock The Door_

Overwhelmed with panic and paranoia, I convinced myself that I was being watched and that someone somewhere knew what I have done. Just the sight of Annabel's body blurred the lines of boundary between fantasy and reality. I just wanted to run away and try to gather my composure, but instead i controlled the urge and gave Annabel a kiss one last time, and closed her eyes with the gentle touch of my blood-soaked fingertips. The goodbyes took over my mind and my apparent madness came back with a vengeance. I wanted to pretend it was all a dream but I knew that I couldn't deny what horrid crime I had commit. I accepted my fate, so I hid Annabel's body and set out into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 3: It Was Your Poison Kiss That Turned Me Into This**

**Running to town in an ashamed state of mind I began to blame Annabel for what I had done to her. The paranoia and depression has turned to rage. **

**I moved as quickly as ****my feet could carry me toward the center of town. Not only was I running from the horrid murder scene, I was running from the ringing of Annabel's voice in my head.**

**It ****was as if her spirit was chasing me, taking away what sanity I had left. I couldn't look at the vision of her in the eyes, knowing that it will weaken my anger and I couldn't ****let that happen. Not now anyway.**

** "Annabel please go. I know what I have done just please let me be." I pleaded quietly as I sprinted towards town; still trying to figure ****out if what had just happened is real or just a horrible nightmare. **

**But as I ran there was just one crippling thought that I couldn't escape even in madness: **

**Annabel was ****the only girl I have ever loved.**

**Chapter 4: The Murderer**

**I have finally made it into town and at last, for the time being, I got rid of Annabel's haunting voice. I wandered past a tavern hearing the sounds of laughter and a **

**drunken piano playing. I became enraged and it was completely out of my control. I thought, "If I can't be happy then none of these drunken bastards can. No one can." **

**I ****entered the tavern and bolted the door shut behind me, unknown to the people inside. With my thoughts racing and my adrenaline pumping I take a drink to calm my ****nerves.**

**But as I looked up from my glass I saw a blood covered screaming Annabel in he reflection of the mirror behind the bar. I finished my drink, stood up and went to**

**the pour soul closest to me, madness completely taking me over, and uttered five ghastly words. "Are you ready to die?" He was dead in less then a minute.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 5: I Immerse Myself In Sick Reflection**_

**Following the strangers' death came a massacre and armed with a complete lack of guilt, I found a strange and sick pleasure in my crazed and demented ways. **

**I felt invincible. Enjoying my victory and overcome with my own satisfaction, I closed my eyes, toke a deep breath and pondered my own insanity. **

**I fantasized about Annabel's voice and questioned whether her love could save me from what I have become. **

**I snapped out of it and cursed those who think I will even consider stopping under my breath.**

_**Chapter 6: Her Somber Silhouette Dances For Me**_

**As the sun sets I couldn't escape from my own imagination. Lost in self-indulgence I began to see Annabel's face everywhere. **

**The visions of her brought me back to my wondering, delusional thoughts and back to the day I first fell in love with her. **

**I soon began to fantasize about how she could possibly be alive. I became obsessed with the fantasy.**

** I ran home in a hastened fury only to be stopped dead in my tracks at my front porch by a man. I looked at the man. I know that I have seen his face before, but I couldn't remember from where.**

** Who was he? What is he doing at my house? **

**He looked back at me and with a low sinister voice he said "Sorry to disrupt you sir but let me introduce myself to you. I am the Thespian. Or in other words, I am the man who killed your beloved Annabel."**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter 7: My Feet Are Slipping_**

**I found it impossible to grip with the emergence and confession of The Thespian. Immediately my fantasy of Annabel being alive was given up and up in smoke.**

**Without my vengeance, anger, insanity and without the chance of Annabel coming back from the dead, I attempted to find a way to join her in death. With thoughts of suicide I contemplate storming the town with a rage unmatched by anyone. **

**"I must try to kill the Thespian." I thought "In order to die heroically trying to avenge Annabel. It's worth the try." As I wandered through town the feeling of defeat weakens my every step.**

**I ended up falling on my knees in an abandoned alley. Mere seconds before my plan came to achievement, she appeared.**

_**Chapter 8: Dead Girls Don't Just Appear Out of Thin Air**_

**I wanted to believe that the girl who appeared out of air was Annabel, but I knew in my heart that it wasn't her. Despite the crushing realization I was taken by the strangers' beauty and sudden emergence in the alley where I was slowly dying.**

**She apparently decided to care for me, nursing me back to health. After several days of silence and being cared for she finally decided to speak. She whispered to me "I'll be your anchor, I'll be your lover."**

**At that very second I knew that it was indeed Annabel. But as I leaned over to kiss her lips, I ended up falling face first in to the cobblestone of the alley where i knelt.**

**Awakened from my dream, I was once again pained by the realization that Annabel is gone.**

_**Chapter 9: It's Happening Again, It's Happening Again**_

__******I find my feet and trudge back out into the sunlit town. I reached the corner and once again I see Annabel in the reflection of a window. But this time she didn't look sad or angry.**

******She didn't appeared tortured like in the image I saw at the tavern, but as the woman I had fallen in love with during the past seven years. Suddenly, the Thespian appears, standing behind Annabel with a knife to her throat.**

******Fear takes over her body as the Thespian slits her throat from ear to ear. The horrific image alerted me of two things:**

******The memory of Annabel was slowly disappearing and that I must find an kill the man who has killed her.**

_**Chapter 10: You Have No Clue What She's Capable Of**_

**I spent the day planning my attack and the evening hunting the Thespian. Immediately as I was searching for him my eyes got blinded by the flash of light from his knife.**

**We ended up fighting to the death. While he was armed with the blade that murdered my one and only love and caused me to succumb to madness all I had was my own bare hands and the fleeting memories of Annabel, all of the good and bad.**

**I vowed revenge on the Thespian as blood and tears spilled during our deadly fight. But once again I had failed. I had let her down, for he found my throat, and gave me my lovers' fate.**

**"I'll see you soon, my love." I thought as he took the knife away from my throat, and my soon to be lifeless body. **


	5. Epilogue

**_And Now The Dream Is Over, Annabel Enters_**

**How could I have been so blind? He was becoming insane since the beginning, but I never thought it would be this horrible. It started with the sketches. I should have seen it. **

**He spent more time on them and anytime he made a mistake he went ballistic and just started cursing at the artwork. Then he became more violent, ripping his canvases and knocking over his bottles of paint and pencils.**

** Around the same time he begins to talk to himself and then speaks of the Thespian ruining our relationship. Who was the Thespian? I knew no one of that name. It wasn't until the end that I found out he wasn't even real, just another demented figment of his imagination. I didn't know what to do with him. **

**He had lost his mind, which had cause me to slowly loose my love for him more and more. And I began to despise him. The last days I spent with him I just watched silently and worried as he drew more and more sketches, not even looking or speaking to me anymore. **

**Then he had reached his highest and most deadliest point of insanity.**

** It was dawn and I was resting in bed when I realized he wasn't there. I got up and looked for him. As I crept down the dark hall way with just a candle in my hand I saw him. He looked crazed and he held a dagger in his hand.**

** "Oh Annabel, sweet beautiful Annabel." he said in a low and croaky voice "It's all your fault for making me into this, You and the damn Thespian. So all I have to say is that I handed you a knife and my heart, and it's time to die." He smiled and lunged after me with the dagger. **

**But luckily at that moment I was quick. When he was about a foot away from my I threw the candle in my hand at his and it hit him. He screamed and dropped the dagger. **

**I ran to get it and I pushed him to the floor. "Stop Annabel please!" he yelled as he fell to the floor on his side. I had tears in my eyes as I knelt down beside him. He started to weep and looked up at me. Never have I seen him look so psychotic but so scared in my seven years knowing him. **

**"Sweetheart, darling, look, it's me, listen to my voice. Everything is going to be okay, my love. Everything is going to be fine." I held the dagger to his throat. **

**He just continued to look up at me not even resisting, as if he knew there was nothing he can do now but to accept his fate. I pressed it further into his throat and said in the clearest and bitterest whisper I could muster "It's all over now." **

**He shut his eyes as I slit his throat. He was no longer the psychotic artist that I had once loved but now a lifeless body. I stroked his hair and began to sob. "I'm sorry. But now the dream is over." I said a choked voice. "It really is over."**

**"The emptiness has haunted you."**


End file.
